Matt & Andrew Cantwell
Fika Cafe - Empire Coffee - Downtown Bagels
It all started in 2016 when Matt & Andrew Cantwell fell for a three-wheeled Piaggio Apes from Italy with a 50cc engine. Kinda sounds romantic but they loved it so much and at the time there was not much in the way of mobile coffee and certainly no one delivering coffee from such a cool-looking vehicle… how could they go wrong?
The romance ended six months in when it broke down and put them out of business for at least four months. No one in New Zealand knew how to fix the bespoke Italian engine, which drove their decision to buy another one. They delivered their mobile coffee at weddings, and public and private events before they landed a spot in Re:START setting up next to the playground.
These guys are not happy just sitting around doing nothing and that is when they got into roasting their own blend of coffee. We asked how this came about and Andrew said a friend bought a coffee roaster online for no real reason and it just happened to end up in his garage. So they learn how to roast coffee in Andrew’s garage through trial and error and learn some tricks along the way by reading information on roasting from Scott Rao. Scott Rao is a coffee expert and author specializing in cafe operation, barista training, and coffee roasting and brewing. They said it took about six months before they had a product they could start using in their mobile operation.
The next natural progression was landing a spot in Riverside Market and being one of the first movers, securing a good spot and starting their Empire Coffee brand in October 2019. Of course, COVID lockdowns hit four months after opening and they spent a few months doing text-to-order coffee, which was pretty hard work for a small return.
The dream was always to do good bagels with coffee so when a site came up in Riverside, they took on the space and started Downtown Bagels. What we love about these guys is their entrepreneurial flare, never slowing down and always on the hunt for new opportunities. This leads us to their latest edition to their business portfolio as they have recently opened Fika Café in the Guthrey Lanes just off City Mall on Cashel Street.
The love affair with the Piaggio Ape three-wheelers never finished as they added a third to their fleet, a 400cc Piaggio Ape which has an inbuilt beer tap for pouring nitro brew coffee and is a lot faster around town than the other two!
Parking
With over 10,000 car parks in the city centre, find one where you need it.
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